”Run forest run!”— Nuncio The chain pierced Nuncio’s shoulder, tearing through ligaments and bone before coming out the other side. There was a spray of blood, but Sophia had missed any vital organs. The chain would hold strong.
”What?” In the next instant, Nuncio was slung towards Mariette.
”Amaryllis! You need to run!” Was all he got out before he, Sammy, Eli, and Mariette vanished inside a portal.
Rosa’s charge was intimidating, but Vermin Killer didn’t budge an inch. He remained stationary behind his wall of crows. Rosa would never get the chance to test its strength before the wolverines set upon her, tearing into the tiger’s rear quarters and front leg. It swiped and kicked, but the wolverines were relentless and without fear.
The wall of crows separated, with half of the birds flying up towards Sophia and the rest remaining before Verminkiller. Each one that flew by tried to take a piece of her flesh with each pass.
”Bring two, bring three, bring four magical girls. I will outnumber you every time.”The pirate simply leveled her magical shotgun-axe and drew upon her Focused Assault once more. The wear and tear and drain from battle were one thing, but no matter how much she felt tired it wasn’t like she was going to relent either.
BOOM!!!The girl unleashed an erupting shot from her gun at Vermin Killer, not caring if his birds got in the way or not. It was a more powerful shot than normal, which was to her favor, but even so she lightly winced at the light pain she got from her body as a result. Not like the birds trying to tear into her flesh with their wee little beaks wasn’t painful as well, but she’d just about had enough of today to use the pain to help her keep focus.
The bullet tore through a few birds, but moments before the bullet struck Vermin Killer, his body split apart into even more crows and scattered. With all the crows swarming the warehouse, it was hard to tell where they went, or if they were there fighting alongside their companions.
All the while, her patron floated overhead with worried creases forming in its worn wooden planks.
“Do ah’ look lak’ ah’ give ah’ fook about yer’ ‘cool guy talk’ at all, ya’ soddin’ bilge rat?
Ahm’ tired of yer’ kind ah’ trash prancin’ bout’, so get yeh’ ass movin’ outta’ ere’ if yeh’ don’t want yeh’ skull mounted on mah’ patron’s aft and yer’ beasties all fried golden brown!””It is my vultures that will pick your bones clean, corpse sailor.” Vermin Killer’s disembodied voice filled the warehouse.
The golden shields that had formed for Mariatte and company vanished, no longer needed, as they soon reappeared to form a bubble around Sophia with an opening in the front. That...and at least her clothing was incredibly tough and rather covering on her body.
Vestiges now. Vestiges and traces, seconds remaining. Amaryllis could feel her form begin to revert, the fatigue such that even though her own stamina seemed to sustain itself, her strength was beginning to flag. Her Sword grew heavier in her palm, the world around her seemed to be speeding up, and her magic no longer responded to her.
It would have been lovely to retort, to say that being outnumbered only made magical girls stronger, but the Knight of Rose knew that soon enough, she wouldn’t even be a knight anymore.
Nuncio was out. Sophia was still going strong. And Rosa…
“Pirate! Bring the whole warehouse down! We’re getting outta here!”
With that, Amaryllis charged into the forefront, her Silverlight ever-hungering as she used Sophia’s shotgun blast as cover fire. Reaching the mangled tiger swiftly, but not nearly so swift as she’d have liked, the midnight-haired swordswoman swung her weapon with wild abandon, disemboweling any wolverine that got its jaws on the bloodied tiger. Not to kill, nor to chase away, but simply to reduce the weight. She could lift a sedan with one hand, and a male tiger only weighed a quarter of that weight, but those records were on a good day. A flicking of a wrist reduced another wolverine to just a head, before Amaryllis reached out with her off-hand to grasp Rosa and toss her towards Sophia.
Her stump pressed against the white fur.
Fuck.
Even though Sophia hadn’t started to bring down the warehouse, the ground was starting to shake. Vermin Killer may have departed, but his reinforcements had arrived. two hippopotamus bulldozed their way through the wall, stampeding towards the magical girls.
Almost all of the most dangerous animals in the world originate from Africa, and the hippo is no exception. While they have a reputation for being docile creatures, they are anything but. They are heavyweight fighters that are far faster than their size would lead one to believe. They can move through water swiftly since the water doesn’t impede them at all. They weigh so much they sink to the floor of any body of water they traverse, allowing them to run as if they were on land. Their hide is so thick that they seldom have to worry about other predators. A pack of lionesses are unable to dig through their two inch thick hide, while the hippo has more than enough strength to crush their skulls in a single bite. Hippos aren’t just a problem for the wildlife in Africa, they are a problem for humans too. They make short work of boats and cars. Out of the entire animal kingdom, it is hippos that claim the most human lives per year.
Their jaws swung open, revealing jaws filled with tusks and teeth. Nothing was going to stop the two-ton behemoths from charging.
“That’s arr’ cue, lass!”The pirate shot out her chain arm to grab up Amaryllis and the injured tiger, whilst she smirked and reached her other arm up into the air. The golden shields faded away once more, and through the roof crashed in an-...anchor? An anchor attached to a chain to be specific, but called forth by Sophia’s magic to help her up onto her patron.
So as the two ton piles of man-killing animal flesh charged, Sophia would suddenly be yanked up as she grabbed onto the chain itself. Was a little spell she’d been granted by her patron to get on the ship if she ever couldn’t fly up to it. A spooky precaution that was hopefully going to come right in handy. If Amaryllis and the tiger were on the other end of the chain arm, however, it would pull them along as well as it attached itself to the anchor chain in turn for more support.
The Anchor was hoisted into the air, Pirate knight and tiger in tow. The hippos snapped their jaws shut, but bit nothing but air. Big and strong as they might have been, they weren’t jumpers by any stretch of the imagination.
The warehouse was still filled with crows however. They bit and tore, but between Amaryllis’s swordsmanship and Sophia’s gunplay, they were no match.
Once they left the top of the warehouse, the animals seemed to retreat. The crows simply flew away, while the hippos retreated behind a building, only to disappear from sight.
Yet even as the enemies disappeared...the pirate seemed to have one last thing for those she and her allies had just been fighting.
“Remember this as the day you almost caught...Captain. Sophia. Von Zeerover!!! Hahahaha!”
“Hmmmmmm?”— TetradTetrad raised an eyebrow. This Puchuu seemed to care about Shion. Which was a good thing but it just went against everything Tetrad knew about Puchuus.
“Uh, yea! We can do something about that.” Tetrad snapped her fingers and tapped her foot. A few seconds later, and a door to a run down bar seemed to rise out of the ground and swing open.
“It’s my interdimensional…bar…place. I don’t really ‘live’ in there so you’ll have to pardon the mess. I’ve been meaning to clean it up but I keep getting side tracked.” It also looked drab because it was a more fitting atmosphere to interrogate prisoners in.
“There’s a few holes in the couch, but it’s still really comfortable. And you’re welcome to whatever is in the fridge.” Tetrad twiddled her thumbs.
“So you can just relax in there. Or just her if you have other things to do. I’ll go back to the hotel I’m staying at, and then she can come back out in a place that isn’t surrounded by violent monsters. Sound good?”
“Registration successful.”— OrosOros chose to watch the rest of the fight from a rooftop. She had given herself the skin of a chameleon to blend into her surroundings. Unlike octopus and squids, chameleons did not shift pigmented plates on their skin to change their colors. Instead, they had nano-crystal scales under their skin that reflected different colored light. Tighter clusters reflected blue and green light, and spacing the scales apart changed the color to yellow, and orange and red the further apart they got. The light reflected mixes with the color of the skin to produce their camo. It is the chameleon’s control over these scales that lets it change its color. Though chameleons typically use their colors to stand out more so that they can attract a mate or scare off another chameleon.
Her eyes had become that of an owl, which were the best the animal kingdom had to offer. At least when it came to night vision. Their tubular eyes had excellent depth perception and could catch more light than cat eyes. This gave Oros binocular vision, but she’d have to turn her head to look around. An owl’s eyes aren’t round, and thus can’t pivot in their eye sockets.
Between these two features, Oros was able to remain hidden and keep her distance. It was possible someone with deviation magic could pick up her presence, but that was hardly a concern. If someone wanted to get the jump on her, they would have to contend with her excellent hearing and sense of smell. She wouldn’t be here long anyway.
After the fight’s anti-climatic finish, her eyes tracked Faith. Or more specifically, Raven. Her actions had been rather questionable in all this. But after glimpsing at her blade, she could understand why. It was evident where Raven’s alliance laid with a simple glimpse into her past.
“Another Beacon hopeful.” She sheathed her sword.
“Hope you don’t mind collabs, Raven. We’ll meet again real soon.” There was no reason to stick around longer. Oros could track Faith with her sword at this point. She turned towards the shadows and faded from sight.
Member
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Lunamaria Hawke,
Villamvihar,
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hanzo,
TheWendil,
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